When I was ten I read Heinlein's Red Planet. When I was eleven I read Heinlein's Puppet Master and I was hooked on Heinlein but not forever. I read most of his SciFi short stories that stretched way back to the late thirties. Most were excellent, some were so-so and some were bad.

Then later, after I figured out that I was a man equal in judgement to all men, I read "Stranger in a Strange Land".

The book was interesting but disappointing. And so to my great disappointment and pleasure, I found out that I knew more about life than Heinlein and have remained so since.

I've been asking around, tsuwm, and have learned a lot about why Heinlein used pseudonyms, and why he used the ones he did. I have not yet heard from the strongest Heinlein scholar I know, but here's what I've gleaned so far:

John W. Campbell Jr. had a policy of only one story per author per issue of Astounding -- but not necessarily only one story by a given writer. In one issue's "Analytical Laboratory" reader ratings of stories, Heinlein was edged out of first place -- by Anson MacDonald.

Heinlein used his own name for his Future History stories, and MacDonald for fiction not in the Future History that was published in Astounding. He had an informal agreement with Campbell that the Heinlein and MacDonald names would get premium rates, and Heinlein would sell under those two names only to Astounding.

Stories which Campbell rejected were farmed out to other publications under the Lyle Monroe name. Caleb Saunders wrote fantasy, IIRC.

Heinlein also wrote a detective story under the name "Simon York".

"Anson," of course, was Heinlein's middle name, and "Macdonald" was the maiden name of his second wife, Leslyn. Riverside, IIRC, was after the city in California -- he was living in L.A. at the time he was using it. Lyle was his mother's maiden name, and he uses it regularly in early stories, including the protagonist of "If This Goes On" and Mary Jane Lyle, the mother of Valentine Michael Smith. "Caleb" was an Annapolis roommate's name.

I bruised my heel over the weekend so I stayed home today to recuperate and gets some writing done. Then I read this thread and remembered a used paperback that I bought a few years back by Heinlein entitled "6XH" (Six short stories by Heinlein) and stayed in bed all day reading it and didn't get anything else done.

My foot still hurts and I don't know whether to blame you people or thank you.

I tried to read a Heinlein book once, I think it was Stranger in a Strange Land (it was the one where they have a space craft of sorts and can visit various universes, included the one with the Earth that is almost the same except there is a letter missing in the alphabet). The characters seemed to mostly bicker with each other, which grew tireseome, and never finished it. Maybe someone could recommend a good Heinlein book with absolutely NO BICKERING.

Did I mention that I can't stand to listen or read about people bickering?

with absolutely no bickering? I don't know about that; but see Sparteye's link for some general guidelines. my personal recommendation would be The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. if you do acquire a taste, of his later work I muchly enjoyed Job and Friday.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is the favorite of many and a good place to start, I think. But do stay away from his later works, expecially The Number of the Beast, unless you enjoy living through an old man's second adolescence.

...and what characterizes an old man's second adolescence as compared to, say, a middle-aged man's second adolescence? I deal with adolescents all the time and heaven forbid any adult return down that road!

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